Jailed moms get inspirational words from former inmates

Updated 9:58 pm, Saturday, May 11, 2013

Caroline Reyes speaks Friday May 10, 2013 to a room full of mothers incarcerated at the Bexar County Jail during a MotherÕs Day event organized by the countyÕs Mothers And Their Children program.

Caroline Reyes speaks Friday May 10, 2013 to a room full of mothers incarcerated at the Bexar County Jail during a MotherÕs Day event organized by the countyÕs Mothers And Their Children program.

Photo: Ana Ley, San Antonio Express-News

Jailed moms get inspirational words from former inmates

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Caroline Reyes was willing to give up everything to feed her heroin addiction — even her three sons.

“I gave them up because I wanted dope,” Reyes, 37, told a room full of mothers incarcerated at the Bexar County Jail. “I saw mothers selling children for a bag of crack. I saw them say, 'Here, rape my child.' I gave them to my mom because I didn't want that for them.”

Reyes, formerly a crack dealer and madam in the gang-riddled Lincoln Courts area, is now president of Lakeview Baptist Church and is a motivational speaker for women who face some of the same challenges she did. She was one of five speakers who shared their troubled pasts with the inmates on Friday during an event coordinated by jail employees in observance of Mother's Day.

Reyes said it took a yearlong drug sentence at Plane State Jail in Dayton to steer her away from a life of prostitution and drug abuse.

Lying in bunk No. 21 at the prison, she had a vision that reminded her there was a better way to live, Reyes told the group.

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In the vision, she lay dead at the corner of Henry Street and Hamilton Avenue while stray dogs licked her corpse and people sold drugs beside her.

“I've been in this jail so many times,” she said. “Even on Mother's Day, birthdays, Christmas. It's very painful and regretful. How dumb of me.”

Reyes' criminal history includes arrests for assault and felony drug possession, public records show.

She credited Mothers and Their Children, a program organized by Bexar County Jail officials, for providing a support network to help her get clean and back to her family seven years ago.

The MATCH program screens inmates with children and helps those who are eligible become better mothers through classes and visits with their kids.

Even with help from MATCH, the uphill climb was hard, Reyes said. Thanks to what she learned in the program she has made amends with her three sons, now 21, 19 and 16.

Georgina Martinez, who is serving a five-month sentence at the jail after a second DWI arrest, said stories shared by Reyes and the other women inspire her to be a better mom and address her issues with drinking.

She got both DWIs after the recent death of a loved one turned her to alcohol, Martinez said. The work done by workers and volunteers in the MATCH program has “opened my eyes to the repercussions of my choices,” she said.

Martinez, 34, even hopes to get a master's degree in social work after graduating from Palo Alto College and wants to create her own inmate-assistance program at the jail.

After four months behind bars, Martinez got her first visit from her teenage daughter on Thursday.

“That was my Mother's Day visit,” she said. “I cried tears of joy. I thought she would be mad at me.”

Martinez hopes her recent arrest will teach her daughter not to abuse alcohol or drugs.

“I'm going to spend the rest of my life showing her the right way,” she said.